The present invention relates to a communication service implemented in a communication network. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of performing a communication service for establishing communication between an originating party and a terminating party, where the terminating party is selected in dependence of the geographical positions of the originating party and a set of mobile communication units. The invention includes a communication network in which the communication service is implemented.
There are a number of different services, e.g. taxi or package delivery, which can be labelled as geographically dependent services. In these services, a party requesting the service typically makes a call to a service provider switchboard and states the exact location where the service is required. The switchboard staff will then select, from a group of available executing service providers e.g. taxi drivers, the executing service provider closest to the requesting party and give him an order to go to the location of the requesting party and perform the service. Geographically dependent services could be provided in a more efficient manner if the requesting party could communicate directly with the closest taxi driver and thus eliminating the need for the Service Provider switchboard.
The published international patent application WO 96/27997 describes a subscriber service for establishing a connection between an A-subscriber (originating party) and a B-subscriber (terminating party) in a telecommunication network. The A-subscriber wishes to be connected to any B-subscriber located in a given geographical area and enters a subscriber service code which is received by a switching station in the network. The service code comprises information identifying the geographical area and the network localizes B-subscribers that are available in the area and selects at least one B-subscriber. Finally, the connection is established between the A-subscriber and the selected B-subscriber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,633 describes a cellular telephone system in which call management, including selection of a cell site most appropriate for a call associated with a mobile unit, are made based on the geographic location of a mobile unit rather than on the strength of the signal associated with the call. The mobile unit includes a GPS receiver that receives information from a geostationary satellite to determine the precise location of the mobile unit. This position information is relayed to the cell site initially managing the mobile unit, and the mobile unit is handed off to a cell site that is most appropriate for the call. Apart from using the position information for making handoff decisions, U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,633 describes briefly that this information can be used to assess call charges, to collect usage and traffic pattern data and in connection with emergencies.
In e.g. the freephone service, the routing of a telephone call can be made dependent on the A-number of a calling party (so called location dependent or originating dependent routing). When the freephone services is invoked by dialling a freephone B-number, the dialled B-number is translated by the network into a C-number and the call is set up between the calling party and the destination party associated with the C-number. In many countries, e.g. Sweden, phone numbers are defined such that the most significant bits of a phone number comprises an area code corresponding to a geographical area. A typical way of setting up a freephone service is to translate the dialled B-number into a C-number having the same area code as the A-number. Thus the calling party and the destination party can be arranged to both be located in the geographical area corresponding to the area code. However, routing a telephone call based on the area code of the calling party does not enable the network to select the closest one among a set of parties all having phone numbers with an identical area code.
To enable a phone call to be routed e.g. to the nearest branch of Pizza Hut when there are several branches having phone numbers with the same area code, a more elaborated version of originating dependent routing has been used, wherein a street address of the calling subscriber is determined from the A-number by interrogating a database storing addresses of each phone subscriber. The street address of the calling subscriber is then used to determine which branch should handle the call and the call is routed accordingly.
However, if either the calling party or the set of parties from which the terminating party is to be selected are using mobile phones, it is not possible to route a call to the nearest party based on the phone numbers of said parties.
In the IS-41 standard, a service called Mobile Access Hunting (MAH) is described. The MAH-service causes a call to a Pilot Directory Number to search a list of MAH-group members, i.e. mobile stations associated with the Pilot Directory Number, sequentially for one that is idle and able to be alerted. If a particular MAH-group member is busy, inactive, fails to respond to a paging request, or does not answer alerting before a time-out, then the next MAH-group member in the list is tried.
A communication network comprises a radio communication network in which a group of mobile communicating units is operating, the group of mobile communication units being associated with a common group address. The invention solves the problem of establishing communication between an originating party and a most suitable party in said group.
The problem is solved essentially by a method in which the geographical positions of the originating party and the mobile communication units in said group are determined, one of the mobile communication units is selected based on the determined geographical positions and communication is established between the originating party and the selected mobile communication unit. The solution includes a communication network with the necessary means for performing the method.
More specifically, the problem is solved in the following manner. The communication network receives a request for communication between the originating party and a terminating party. The terminating party address specified in the request, corresponds to the common group address. The geographical positions of the originating party and at least a subset of the mobile communication units in said group are determined. Based on the determined geographical positions, one of the mobile communication units in said group is selected. Communication is established between the originating party and the selected mobile communication unit.
Thus, one object of the invention is to enable a communication network to offer a communication service, whereby communication can be established between an originating party and a terminating party, wherein the terminating party is selected from a set of mobile communication units as the mobile communication unit that is most suitable considering the geographical positions of the originating party and the mobile communication units.
A communication service of the aforesaid kind affords a number of advantages when offering geographically dependent services such as taxi, package delivery, handling of burglar alarms etc. By using the inventive communication service, the need for a staffed service switchboard or liasion-central is eliminated. Thus the service can be offered with shorter response time, better precision and at a lower cost.
The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplifying embodiments thereof and also with reference to the accompanying drawings.